The Philadelphia 76ers head to Boston for Game 2 looking to bounce back after a 123-91 loss to the Boston Celtics in the series opener.
Who: Philadelphia 76ers (0-1) at Boston Celtics (1-0)
When: 7 p.m. ET
Where: TD Garden, Boston, Mass.
Watch: Peacock
The Sixers opened the playoffs poorly, scoring just 18 points in the first quarter and were never able to recover. Poor shooting doomed the team throughout the game: they shot just 38.9% from the floor and an even worse 17.4% on their three-pointers, as they continued to settle for low-percentage shots.
Tyrese Maxey finished with 21 points on 8-20 shooting and just 1-of-5 on his threes, while Paul George had 17 points on 4-of-8 shooting. With Kelly Oubre Jr. and VJ Edgecombe combining for 23 points on 11-of-30 shooting, the team didn't get much else out of the rest of the lineup.
While the team's hopes rest on whether Joel Embiid can return at some point during the series, another game like the first will almost assuredly lead to a quick first-round exit at the hands of their biggest rival. Head Coach Nick Nurse will need to adjust his schemes to find better looks against Boston’s defense.
The Celtics entered the first game with a solid offense, but a defense that ranks among the best in the league, and it was showcased on Sunday. The Celtics turn the ball over less than anyone else in the league, hold teams to the lowest scoring in the league, and have held opponents to the second-lowest shooting percentage. All of which were on full display against the Sixers.
While the team shot 50% from the floor, their three-point shooting was in line with their season average, at just 36.4% on the night. What they did to the Sixers was force bad shots and turnovers, which led to a 22-3 differential in points off turnovers. While the Celtics didn't seem to miss, they held the Sixers to poor outside shooting for the entire game while continuing to create quality shooting chances, even while attempting 44 three-pointers.
Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum combined for 51 points on 20-38 shooting, and Tatum was just 1-of-7 on his three-point attempts. With Derrick White and Payton Pritchard combining to shoot just 4-of-16 on their threes, forward Sam Hauser finished the night shooting 4-of-6 from beyond the arc, and the rest of the team shot fairly well.
The Sixers have to game plan better against this Celtics team, which is well-rounded and forces opponents into poor shooting nights. They have to look to penetrate and score inside, as the Celtics' defense doesn't allow for clean looks from the outside. If they're going to keep up with this Celtics squad, they will need balanced scoring.
Defensively, the team needs George, Oubre Jr., Dominick Barlow, and their center duo of Andre Drummond and Adem Bona to do more to stop the Celtics' frontcourt from getting easy buckets, which happened more often than it should have.
Everyone knew it would be a tough battle for the Sixers, especially without Embiid. This is the time that Maxey is going to have to take his game to an even greater level if they're going to stand a chance in the series. Longer than usual three-pointers are not the way to get back in a game, especially when you have no one in the post to rebound, and you're not setting yourself up for quality shots.
This isn't exclusive to Maxey, but he's going to have to set the tone early if they want to slow down the Celtics' attack that seemed to do what they wanted in the first quarter of Game 1 and then were able to sit back and balance their attack throughout the rest of the way.
If the Sixers get into another long-distance shooting battle, the game will get out of control quickly, again.
Celtics 117 - Sixers 108
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